The Garry Hurvitz Centre for Community Mental Health at SickKids is a child and youth mental health centre integrated with The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). We are located in the northwest area in the City of Toronto, on Sheppard Ave. West and downtown on Jarvis St.
We offer a range of in-person and virtual mental health services for children and youth (infancy to 18) and their families, from prevention and early intervention through assessment, counselling and therapy and intensive services.
We are also connected to the continuum of mental health services for children and youth supported by SickKids: the Brain and Mental Health Program, the SickKids TeleLink Mental Health Program, the SickKids CCMH Learning Institute and our online resources through AboutKidsHealth.
Across our services and platforms, locally and provincially, the SickKids mental health enterprise provides over 63,000 clinical contacts annually. As one of the largest providers of youth mental health service in the province, our Centre is focused on improving access to care, providing the highest quality service to kids and families and contributing to the improvement of the mental health system in Ontario.
Who We Are
We offer a safe space for our clients
We are a safe, inclusive and diverse organization. Our clients are from diverse backgrounds and communities from across the city. We respect and welcome children, youth and families from all ethno-cultural and racial communities, and all sexual orientations and gender identities. Our staff team is reflective of the diversity of people and culture in the city of Toronto and beyond. We accommodate unique language, cultural and communication needs. Mental health services can be supported by an interpreter as needed. We are working hard to be an inclusive, safe and welcoming place. Please tell us how we are doing.
We partner with SickKids to improve outcomes for children and youth
We are part of the SickKids Mental Health Strategy (MHS), which is a road map that defines SickKids’ role and path forward in the dynamic and complex area of mental health care delivery. This plan points us towards stronger collaboration with our hospital partners to better meet the needs of many underserved populations and those children with concurrent physical and mental health issues. See SickKids resources and services.
We collaborate to provide excellence in service
We are proud to partner with the Toronto District School Board in the provision of our intensive services for children and youth and to collaborate with Toronto Public Health, Public Health Canada, and the City of Toronto in the provision of our prevention and early intervention programs.
As part of the Toronto Region Child and Youth Mental Health Core Service Providers group, we participate with our Lead Agency, Strides, to coordinate service and improve access. We are a member supporter of Children’s Mental Health Ontario. See all of our sector partners.
We serve the unique needs of every client
With a team comprised of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and child and family therapists, nurses, occupational therapists, child and youth workers, parent and child educators and early childhood educators, we provide an integrated and specialized approach for our clients.
We also emphasize a collaborative engagement with our clients and their families and caregivers to develop treatment plans that reflect each client’s individual needs and each family’s goals for change. From brief to more time-intensive therapies, we are committed to providing high quality, evidence-informed care that fits the unique needs of every client we serve. We offer this in collaboration with SickKids and our community partners.
We work to increase access to services
When you or your child is struggling with a mental health issue, access to services without a long wait is essential. We are working to reduce wait times: since 2017 the average wait times for service have been reduced by 60 per cent and this continues to be a priority for us. Many of our services are available virtually, which is a more convenient choice for some clients and families. New brief service models allow faster access to care when this can be helpful. We continue to work toward improved service levels and welcome client feedback.
We offer training for the next generation of clinicians
We are an important member of the academic health science community. Through affiliation agreements with the University of Toronto and other academic institutions, we provide professional training to over 120 students across a variety of health and administrative disciplines annually. This includes placements in psychology, psychiatry, social work, nursing, child and youth work and early childhood education. Our Learning Institute offers evidence-based learning opportunities for mental health and medical health professionals, direct service workers, educators and first responders.
We meet a high standard for quality and safety
We are proud to have achieved a decision of Accredited with Exemplary Standing from Accreditation Canada. Our Accreditation under Accreditation Canada’s community mental health standards reflects our ongoing commitment to quality, safety, accountability, and people-centred care.
We use the tools of implementation science and continuous quality improvement to better understand our client needs and to continuously review and renew our service models. We are committed to doing all we can to ensure that our services are informed by the latest evidence and that our resources are deployed in such a way as to provide optimal service access to our community.
We participate with SickKids in the Caring Safely program. Caring Safely encourages a culture of collaboration and mutual learning with respect to client safety, and we encourage clients to let us know when they have a safety concern. We are committed to annual safety data monitoring and reporting.
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Strategic Plan & Purpose
We are pleased to launch our new Strategic Plan 2025: Enriching Health through Mental Health. This work is now emboldened by the transformational gift from Garry Hurvitz that not only rebrands our organization, but enables us to bring this plan to life.
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Our Values
Our Strategic Plan 2025 makes sense of our directions as an organization. Our values describe the qualities we aspire to in pursuing those directions. If strategy is where we are going, values are what we bring.
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Annual Reports
The Annual Report for 2021–2022 and previous years reports can be found here.
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Our Health Equity Work
Our Anti-Black Racism, Anti-Oppression and Health Equity (ABRAOHE) Advisory Committee was formed in the summer of 2021. See what we’ve accomplished so far and what’s next!
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Careers
Join a team that is making a difference for children, youth and families in the City of Toronto.
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Resources on Children’s Mental Health
Local, provincial and national resources on children’s mental health.
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